Addiction: sin or disease?

ViaCrucis said:

Sounds like a nice way to feel better about oneself and a really terrible way to actually help people suffering with addiction. Focus on your own eye-logs.

-CryptoLutheran

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Sounds like you can't handle the truth.

Emsmom1 said:

Is addiction a sin or a disease? Maybe both? Curious as to what people think about this topic.

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Both.

In a sinless world there was no addiction, nor disease. Everything was good, unashamed, and sinless at Gen. 1:31. At Gen. 3:7 that all changed. Humanity became not-good, ashamed, and sinful and sin and transgressional death entered the world. All our relationships became estranged. In that moment of Gen. 3:7 Adam (and all his progeny) became estranged from God, estranged from self, estranged from others, and estranged from the creation over which moments eariler he'd been the divinely mandated steward and authority.

Understand that "addiction" is neither a medical, psychiatric/psychological, nor Biblical term. The diagnostic manual physicians and psychologists use doesn't have a diagnosis known as "addiction." The diagnosis is dependence. The term scripture uses if "paroinon," which means "given over to." This is the term used in 1 Tim. 3:3, 8 and Tit. 1:7.

We were once reliant upon God but having broken fellowship with Him through disobedience e live in a constant state of estrangement apart from Christ. As a consequence we attempt to fill that need with other dependencies. When the dependency becomes severe and (near-)constant we generally call it "addiction." But if you want to understand addiction accurately then dependency is the means of doing so, especially once it is recalled that the Bible's word for anything we place in the place of God is called an...

Emsmom1 said:

Is addiction a sin or a disease? Maybe both? Curious as to what people think about this topic.

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Addiction can be a Spiritual/mental disease that is your own fault - and is, therefore, a full blown sin.

Addiction can be a Physical/mental disease that one innocently becomes enslaved, as through a doctor prescribed medication.

Temptation that is sin:
When we give into temptation, we are saying to God that His Will and Promises and Spirit are not sufficient for us - that God is not sufficient to be our Master and Lord of our lives. Giving into temptation is sin.

If we sin in weakness, but then, in shame, grief and remorse ask God to forgive and cleanse us, God will do so. This is the best circumstance, before an addiction ever forms.

If we continue in that sin, and keep doing it, it becomes a habit. That sin is now controlling you. You have opened the door to Satan's power in your life. It's like Frodo or Bilbo Baggins (the Hobbit in Lord of the Rings) - the more Frodo or Bilbo relied on the ring and used it, the more control the ring gained over his life - an addiction formed and grew more powerful each time the ring was used. Once weakened by your New Master, you are now open to further sins and addictions. You have lost Spiritual fellowship with God.

A sin-habit becomes an addiction - slavery to that sin - and brings forth Spiritual death.

To be free of that addiction and regain fellowship with God, you must come to the place you were before becoming addicted - only by a renewed faith in God and repentance from that addiction. God forgives, cleanses and frees. Such an experience, if you come through it, will make you wiser to the allusions of sin.

An innocent addiction - one that you did not purposely choose but were innocently brought to that point - is overcome through prayer, commanding that addiction to leave in Jesus' name, and removing the thing which is causing the addiction.

This is my understanding.

messianist said:

Those who have addictions are under judgment.

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Those who judge and place themselves in the Judgment Seat are under judgment.

messianist said:

Yes all addiction.

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So sayeth you, God, Incarnate?

Emsmom1 said:

Is addiction a sin or a disease? Maybe both? Curious as to what people think about this topic.

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A sin that has physiological effects.

BryanJohnMaloney said:

Those who judge and place themselves in the Judgment Seat are under judgment.

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The spiritual man judge all things.

messianist said:

Those who have addictions are under judgment.

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Do you see a difference between sinning and being sinned against?

A doctor prescribes an addictive painkiller and the patient gets a physiological addiction.

Are they both under judgement?

Explain please.

setst777 said:

To be free of that addiction and regain fellowship with God, you must come to the place you were before becoming addicted - only by a renewed faith in God and repentance from that addiction. God forgives, cleanses and frees. Such an experience, if you come through it, will make you wiser to the allusions of sin.

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I would add that renounciation is required to deal with any spiritual powers intending to keep you captive as well.

2 Cor 4:2 we have renounced secret and shameful ways.

Renounce in the Greek means to speak against.

This is not a prayer but a proclamation against the demonic.

Pertaining to drugs I was taught that it is an unclean thing that corrupts us and opens doors to the enemy..

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭6:17-18‬ ‭

You can take this or leave it, you who judge, but if Jesus returned today as He first came, He would most likely not be found in a suit looking spiritual and pleasing to God on Sunday mornings.

Do you know where He would be? Most likely downtown amongst the addicted sinners.... alcoholics, meth heads, coke harlots, heroin addicts, sexual addicts, you know, the rejects of society, the ones most in the church silently think "Do not come near me, lest you taint me with your sin".

Guys, we are supposed to possess the FREE INDEED Jesus promised us. The only problem is, we do not have a clue how to be set free, so because we can only give away what we possess, those poor lost hopeless souls down under the bridge are not beating down our doors to "get what we got".

Can Jesus deliver what He most clearly promised us? Well, if not, He is a liar. So here is the thing, you who smugly judge those who cannot extricate themselves from the grip of the enemy. How are you doing with your lust? Your pride? Your love of things in the world we are told to flee from? If you cannot get freed from the grip of your "small" sins, perhaps you might find compassion in your heart for those less fortunate than you.

Here is the deal. We are sitting at the precipice of eternity. God is calling His church to shake off our religious stupor and to seek Him with our WHOLE hearts. Thanks God many will heed His call and discover how much we have limited the Holy One of Israel, and discover exactly what possessing new natures actually entails.

But the vast majority will simply ignore God's call as simply religious fanaticism, or worse yet, even heresy, and settle back into their lukewarm churchianity. They will trust that that prayer they uttered long ago actually guarantees their spot on the Bible bus, despite the fact they no no desire at all the get free of their carnal worldly natures.

Do we understand yet? NO sin is too hard for God to deliver a man or woman from, if they long for it and hate the wretched man they have become. The next revival.... the LAST revival, will occur outside the church, where God will be found compelling.... COMPELLING them to enter into His rest.

I personslly have lost a step son to an opiate overdose. At 70 years old, I have adopted his son, my grandson, who is now 10, who was born addicted to heroin and alcohol. I have also lost a step daughter who died three years ago to an Oxy overdose. I have also adopted Gavin, my great grandson, who is now three. I will be the one waving his cane at Gavin's high school graduation. I do not write this from pride.

But these experiences have led me to see what I share here. There is no sin, none, that will stand a chance when God rolls up His sleeves to show what He can do for those whose hearts are right towards Him.

If you are addicted to a besetting sin or if you know someone struggling and getting their spiritual brains getting beat in, take heart. A new day is dawning. The wheat is about to be separated from the tares in the church, and when it does, prepares to be amazed..... and freed. Glory to God!

blessings,

Gideon

Carl Emerson said:

Do you see a difference between sinning and being sinned against?

A doctor prescribes an addictive painkiller and the patient gets a physiological addiction.

Are they both under judgement?

Explain please.

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If elohim didn't want that outcome then it would not happen to that individual, another thing to consider is affliction.

messianist said:

If elohim didn't want that outcome then it would not happen to that individual, another thing to consider is affliction.

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Jesus taught that not all conditions are a result of sin...

messianist said:

The spiritual man judge all things.

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What part of Scripture is that in, where we are instructed to be judgmental of each other, to pick motes out of each others' eyes? Could you direct me to that? Thank you.

ablacksheep said:

Pertaining to drugs I was taught that it is an unclean thing that corrupts us and opens doors to the enemy..

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭6:17-18‬ ‭

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And, therefore, there is no forgiveness.

SkyWriting said:

It's a solution to an unresolved pain in our past.
Not a good one, often damaging, but an attempt to relieve pain.

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I agree.
I went to a Christian seminar once which said just that.
A person has a traumatic life event, like a sudden bereavement; it is painful and they may have a drink or two to numb the pain. Inevitably the drink will wear off and they have to face their loss at some point. If they don't feel able to deal with the pain, they may have another drink or two - alcohol makes them feel good, and they'd rather that than feel in pain.
The trouble is that soon they will have to have more alcohol to provide the same pleasant feelings as before -> addiction.
For alcohol, also substitute chocolate, cake, coffee, drugs, computer games, work, sport, hobbies, inappropriate contentography, gambling. I would hesitate to label it as a sin; who hasn't heard of someone who gets bullied because of their weight and comforts themselves with more food? Or someone who has a hellish home life who loses themselves in fantasy computer games as a way of escape, or works all hours in the office to avoid going home?

messianist said:

Those who have addictions are under judgment.

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Those who judge others are under judgement.

I think addiction is both sin and disease of the mind. Remember they called Jesus "The Great Physician", and He heals in some very amazing ways.

“When Jesus heard it, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners’ ”
Mark 2:15-17

Whenever an act rises to the level of addiction then it becomes a sin in that the object of your addiction becomes higher or more important than God in your heart and life. In that manner it becomes an idol, and something your putting in the place in your life that belongs to God - God should always have primacy in your heart, mind and soul.

It's also something you can't control, because your in bondage to it - hence why we call it addiction - so it's not the same as what you may do happily and joyfully. Most addicts beat themselves up, usually literally hating the object of their addiction because of its control over their lives.

Therefore addiction will likely not get in the middle of (or prevent) a believers salvation. You can be truly saved, working toward your salvation and falter with various sins or issues.

John Piper did a little Q&A about willful sin and those passages in Hebrews. It's good to listen to (or read, as you can also read the transcript) because He shows you two categories of sins and sinning.

How Does ‘Willful Sinning’ Threaten My Salvation?

Those done joyfully and those done begrudgingly. it's very well explained and I enjoyed the teaching. I'm sure you could benefit from it too.

I smoked for 32 years, (totally addicted) and while it took some time after I was saved I was finally able to break the addiction. But, if I should falter and fall, all I need to do is get back up again, through the help of Christ..

This life is a trial and we didn't all come to Christ free of addiction. But, through Christ I do believe there is hope... as Jesus said, through Him we are free indeed.

Its more a matter of truly believing that, believing in His power to set you free from the bondage of sin, from my own experience.

It's a hard road for some, but with faith in Christ we have the ability to overcome.